AM Architecture

Sorrento Beach House

Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape

SORRENTO BEACH HOUSE

AM Architecture

ARCHITECTS
AM Architecture

LEAD ARCHITECT
Andrew Mellios

PHOTOGRAPHS
Dianna Snape

MANUFACTURERS
Cutek, G-LUX, Casf

AREA
307 m²

YEAR
2016

LOCATION
Sorrento, Australia

CATEGORY
Houses

Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape

Text description provided by architect.

Sorrento Beach house is a new dwelling located on Victoria’s first settlement site of 1803, on Sullivan’s Bay.

Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape

The beach house begins as an austere and robust object in the landscape which begins to relax and respond to its natural environment as it approaches the water.

Considering the site’s history, we thought the exterior should not be playful. It should be heavy and robust as one would wish for a ship, or pier, and somewhat austere to avoid polite domestic gestures which seemed out of place against a sombre historical context.

Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape

With this in mind; a broad & very heavy timber screen wraps the building, acting as a sunscreen to an insulated concrete shell beyond whilst directly referencing local coastal structures.

The house transitions between the concepts of shelter and exposure articulating privacy and the occupant’s experience of the site.

Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape

Internally, the sleeping zone emphasises the thermomass concrete shell and is characterised by internal surface, punched-out windows, deep timber sills, and filtered light through external slotted timber screens.

Broad light enters the living-zone and the architecture transitions to a language of spatial openness and less formal restraint, responding to sunlight, wind, privacy, and extensive foreshore views.

The concrete interior emerges to face the harsher conditions of the foreshore, the waterline “presses” against the building creating a sweeping roof line, earthy colours from a local quarry appear in the ground slab, and the timber ceiling fragments into a natural crystalline pattern which happen to align with constellations in the night sky on the eve of settlement.

Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape

The living areas are conceptualised as outdoor space; earth below, sky above waterline directly in front.


Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape


Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape
Sorrento Beach House
© Dianna Snape


Sorrento Beach House
Section
Sorrento Beach House
North Elevation


Sorrento Beach House
Ground Floor Plan
Sorrento Beach House
First Floor Plan
Sorrento Beach House
Reflected Ceiling Plan

AM Architecture
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